When merchants started introducing bitcoin and similar digital currencies as one of their payment methods, they quickly encountered a significant problem: price volatility.
There were instances like a luxury item dealership, which used to accept bitcoins for their products but saw the value their Ferrari cars jump by almost 33% during a test run. The company, dubbed as The White Company, later joined the popular trend of launching a “stablecoin,” a hybrid of blockchain and fiat money, which promised to protect its balance sheets from subtle influences.
What is Stablecoin?
Rather than fluctuating on the whims of traders’ speculation, a stablecoin is a new blockchain-enabled breed that is characteristically pegged to stable real-world assets, from commodities to currencies. For instance, users can purchase one stablecoin for a dollar, and can also redeem it later for the same price, thus eliminating the notorious crypto price swings.
The stablecoin industry became popular in the wake of 2018’s crypto crash. The depression saw the market’s leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum losing 80-90% of their capitalization within a year. A majority of retail investors, who were holding these volatile crypto assets, decided to exchange them for stablecoins as a part of their risk management strategy. Once the volatility settled, traders were redeeming their stablecoins for digital currencies, as well as fiat currencies to exit the crypto market on minimized losses.
CT |
https://www.ccn.com/crypto-industry-is-betting-big-on-the-future-of-stablecoins/
